Wallace's Flying Frog
The overachieving Wallace's flying frog wasn't content to just hop and swim. Thousands of years of watching birds navigate the rain forest and avoid predators by taking to the sky appears to have convinced this unique amphibian that air travel is the way to go. Description This frog is quite photogenic, due to its large size, brilliant colors, and interesting behavior. With a body length of 80–100 mm (males are smaller than females), it is one of the largest species of Rhacophorus. Its eyes and eardrums are large with horizontal pupils. Its limbs are very long, and its fingers and toes are webbed right to the tips. Together with a fringe of skin stretching between the limbs, this flying frog can parachute to the forest floor from high in the trees where it is normally found. Its back is bright shiny green and the underside is white to pale yellow. The upper sides of the inside toes, as well as the outer parts of the toe and finger webbing, are brilliant yellow. The base of the webs and one flank spot per side are jet black. Overall, this frog looks much like the green flying frog (R. reinwardtii) and R. kio, which even if full grown do not reach the size of Wallace's flying frog, though, and have more orange web fringes. They live almost exclusively in the trees, descending only to mate and lay eggs, and leaps and "flies" from tree to tree or to bushes. When threatened or in search of prey, they will leap from a branch and splay their four webbed feet. The membranes between their toes and loose skin flaps on their sides catch the air as they fall, helping them to glide, sometimes 50 feet (15 meters) or more, to a neighboring tree branch or even all the way to the ground. They also have oversized toe pads to help them land softly and stick to tree trunks. They survive mainly on insects. The species is known to fall prey to tree climbing snakes. In the Air Also known as parachute frogs, Wallace's flying frogs inhabit the dense tropical jungles of Malaysia and Borneo. They live almost exclusively in the trees, descending only to mate and lay eggs. When threatened or in search of prey, they will leap from a branch and splay their four webbed feet. The membranes between their toes and loose skin flaps on their sides catch the air as they fall, helping them to glide, sometimes 50 feet or more, to a neighboring tree branch or even all the way to the ground. They also have oversized toe pads to help them land softly and stick to tree trunks. Wallace's flying frogs are not the only frogs who have developed this ability, but they are among the largest. The black color of their foot webbing helps distinguish them from their similarly aerial cousins. Population They are generally bright green with yellow sides and grow to about 4 inches. They survive mainly on insects. The Wallace's flying frog population is considered stable, and they have special status only in certain localities. However, they are partial to breeding and laying eggs in the fetid wallowing holes of the nearly extinct Asian rhinoceros, and further decreases in rhino populations may negatively affect the species. Category:Frogs Category:Amphibians Category:Cold-Blooded Creatures Category:Asian Animals